Good Samaritans rescue woman, daughter from plunged vehicle

By
Elena Watts
July 27, 2013 at 2:27 a.m.Updated July 28, 2013 at 2:28 a.m.

Nearby good Samaritans helped rescue a woman and her young daughter late Friday after the vehicle she was driving went down a boat ramp and into the water in Port O'Connor.

Many details of the rescue were not available Saturday. The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office declined to release any information about the rescue until Monday.

However, firefighter Cale Hummel with the Port O'Connor Volunteer Fire Department, who was at the scene, said the woman and her daughter, thought to be between 3 and 5 years old, were not harmed.

Hummel said the woman was visiting the coastal town and was not familiar with its roads.

"She didn't realize where she was," he said, and she drove off the boat ramp about 11:30 p.m. at Froggie's Bait Dock, 2649 Stella Ave.

Hummel said the back end of the woman's vehicle was floating at the surface of the water when some nearby men who witnessed the accident quickly pulled the woman and the girl out to safety.

The current had pushed the vehicle against the dock, where it settled, Hummel said. And while responders waited for a tow truck, a diver strapped the vehicle to the dock. Officials had worried that tugboat traffic might pull it into the Intracoastal Waterway.

In addition to the Port O'Connor Volunteer Fire Department, the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office and a trooper with the Department of Public Safety responded to the accident.